One Big Hellhole
by daarb123
Summary: One drop. That's all it took. Corporal Kenneth Martin is the sole survivor of his squad... at the very start of the mission. What could possibly be in store for this lone ODST? Action oriented. Read and review! Rated T for language and gore.
1. Chapter 1

**One Big Hellhole**

**Author's Note: Hey people. My first EVER fanfic, hope you guys enjoy. Everything here is just off the top of my head about Halo and one lost ODST... I don't own Halo.**

**Happy reading, and please rate and review!**

**Seriously. Do it. It's my first time, any help would be very much appreciated.**

_I._

The alarms in the HEV, or Human Entry Vehicle, blared and flashed red, giving out a blood-red glow inside the cramped interior. I tried to get the straps that secured me to my jump seat loose, but it was useless. The whole damn unit was in deep shit ever since we launched from the _Ukulele_.

The ceramic skin of the pod had peeled away, exposing me to the elements. I was kitted in full ODST armor, but the slipstream still tore at my helmet, trying to wrench my head upwards.

_God dammit..._

_*Flashback*_

"Thirty seconds to launch, squad three. Stand by." I anxiously waited, twitching in my jump seat, desperately wanting the thrill of free fall. After a while, I heard a shout. "Squad three, go go go!" The Lieutenant in charge of the drop bay's voice was enough for me. I bashed my whole hand onto the big red button marked "Launch", a big, sloppy grin on my face.

The HEV shuddered violently, and then I felt the acceleration of thrusters as the pod dropped free from the _Ukulele_. I couldn't look back because of the tight straps holding me to my jump seat - there was no window up top anyway - but I knew the rest of the squad had dropped right behind me.

Two displays came online right in front of me, and I tapped my hand with ease over the control panel that was on the armrest, having done this many times. First Lieutenant Thomas Carter's helmet showed on one, Staff Sergeant Leslie Blake's showed on the other.

The squad leader had briefed us already aboard the ship. The mission was practically suicide. But we all knew that when we volunteered for this act. Now, the squad leader was giving out orders over the team freq. The pod's comm. gear squealed slightly, now that we were slipping through the beginning of Utarus' atmosphere.

"Alright, listen up, boys and girls. This is what we're gonna do. We are going to hit the dirt, take that rickety-ass Covie base down there away from those Sons-of-Bitches, and slowly spread out from there. Oorah?" The squad leader knew how to spice up the Helljumpers' mood, as vague as he was.

There was a refined chorus of "OORAH!".

We fell through the upper atmosphere of our target planet. I looked at the readings from my HEV's displays and my HUD, making sure there was no problem. I was eavesdropping on a "private" conversation two team members were having on the team freq.

"So anyway, this bitch with the thick glasses walks right up to me, looks me in the eye, and says, 'you have no idea what you have just done.' I just stared at her when suddenly-" the Marine's voice was cut off into static. What the hell-

My eye was already glued to the radar screen showing the blips of my teammates around me. One blinked off, followed swiftly by two others. Then, the pod next to me exploded. The shockwave knocked my pod slightly off course, and the computer compensated.

"Triple A fire, brace yourselves!" someone shouted.

I hastily gripped the two control sticks, jerking the pod sluggishly away from another burst of Covenant Anti-Aircraft Artillery fire. The HEVs were never meant for maneuvering, but it had to be done.

Blips were still blinking off the radar. My pod tumbled end over end, the air disrupted by the AA fire, as well as my own speed.

Something must've fried some of my maneuvering thrusters, as I soon found I couldn't slow down that well. There was a muffled _whump _as the drag chute deployed, albeit a bit late as my pod had already dropped to 2000 feet. The ceramic skin that coated the outside of the pod was peeling away from the immense heat.

Only a handful of ODSTs remained. Staff Sergeant Blake's display had gone dark, and the squad leader's visor was cracked.

"Helljumpers, hit the ground as fast as you dare! We need to get down there ASAP!" As if we didn't already know...

Still, I keyed in the override code into the HEV's computer. The drag chute jettisoned early, the rapid landing procedure kicking in. The numbers were the absolute limit for a human, and many died in the impact. But every second we were in the air was another chance for those AA guns to blow us out of the sky.

Suddenly, more AA guns opened up. The squad leader screamed, a mere split second before his display went dark.

All remaining friendly blips winked off the display just as I wrenched the control sticks sideways, with half my pod being blown away as I did so. So much for that Jackhammer missile launcher.

The squad leader's scream was still vivid in my mind.

_*Flashback ends*_

I tore out my combat knife from the side of my suit, finally able to cut myself free from the jump seat. With every display in the pod fried, I only had my HUD to tell me my pod's status. The altimeter read 500 feet. I had seconds left. With myself free, I hastily wound several of the torn out wires together, not an easy task with gloves on. I did it, a moment before impact.

I barely felt the decelerating burn from the pod's thrusters before the impact knocked me unconscious.

101010101

I woke, coughing out some of the dust coating the inside of my throat. My whole body ached. With a groan, I sat up, carelessly bumping my head against the pod's cover.

Wincing from the pain, I looked out the front window. Or what was left of it. It seemed clear. Looking around to see what gear I had left, I tried to contact the _Ukulele._

"_Ukulele, _this is Corporal Kenneth Martin of ODST squad three. Our squad's been annihilated, over." My suit didn't seem to be working too well, or maybe the Covies were jamming transmissions. Something came back in reply, but it was too garbled for me to make any sense out of it.

"_Ukulele, _this is Martin. Did not make any sense out of your last transmission. The Covenant is probably jamming transmissions. Will advise when appropriate. Martin out." It was useless to try and make any sense out of their reply.

I grabbed the M7S submachine gun sitting next to my seat, and after checking it for damage, I started to prime the explosive bolts to blow the pod open. I needed my spare gear, and as far as I could tell, I was alone.

The hatch exploded with a _bang. _I hopped out of the pod, sweeping the SMG around and covering the immediate outside. No hostiles. I took a while to wrench the MA5C assault rifle from its compartment inside the pod before approaching the left side of the pod, wanting to get my survival pack and giving my armor a quick check on the way.

There was not much damage, apart from a few scruffs and dings that ruined the light woodland camouflage, and some blackened areas from heat. The suit was still vacuum-proof, and would do fine in a firefight. Stats winked on in the display's corners, slightly slower than usual, and a large compass appeared.

After retrieving the gear, I left the right side untouched, partly because I knew the compartment there held only a Jackhammer missile launcher and several missiles, and partly because I knew that had been blown off by a burst of plasma.

Consulting my satellite image issued by ONI, I visually and electronically verified our original target, not entirely trusting the radiation-exposed electronics. I slung my rifle over my shoulder, beginning the moderately long trek to the Covenant base.

After walking for two hours, the Covenant base was in sight, and it was crawling with Grunts and Jackals.

The base was fairly straightforward in construction. There was an outer perimeter wall, surrounded by energy shields, and there was a large structure in the middle, the center of operations. Guards coated almost every possible advantage point. They would be able to see me coming from a mile away. To get in, I needed a distraction.

101010101

Captain James Marshall of the _Ukulele _was pissed. He had lost pretty much an entire squad of ODSTs, and the one man who was left couldn't hear his transmissions. Damn the Covenant, he thought.

He did his best not to show it, though, like any good captain should. "Ops, give me a sitrep on Martin's status!" he barked.

The Lieutenant manning the Operations Station, Second Lieutenant Nicole Harper, brushed her blond hair away from her face, typing frantically at her keyboard. "Signal's weak, sir. He seems to be getting ready to attack the Covenant base." Harper tapped away, trying to clear the interference. "Wait, incoming transmission. Patching it through."

Martin's voice, laced with static, rang out in the Captain's earpiece. "_Ukulele, _request EMP pulse, over. I'm hoping it would get through their shields and bring down their electronics." The transmission ended.

The _Ukulele_ was a prototype frigate, with modest armament, light armor and powerful engines. It also had lots of sensitive stealth technology. It could sneak by an entire Covenant battle group if needed.

One of the features of the Ukulele was to emit either an EMP blast to disable enemy electronics in space, or fire a tight beam EMP directed anywhere. Martin needed that tight beam quickly, or it could cost him his life.

The bridge crew was apparently oblivious to the situation, however. They were staring at the Captain, waiting for orders.

"What the hell are you all staring at? You know the importance of this mission! Give the man his EMP pulse, now!"

The bridge crew snapped into motion, each mumbling an "Aye aye, sir."

Captain Marshall sat back, fingering his temples. This mission was supposed to be a milk run. Damn ONI and their shitty intel.

101010101

I was still waiting for the EMP pulse when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned, raising my SMG.

There was a small patrol of Grunts, each staring at me, plasma pistols glowing a sickly green. Their methane harnesses seemed to hiss with every breath, and I heard loud pants mixed in. One with a shining red harness, unaware I was an enemy, stared at me with its beady eyes.

I opened fire, hosing down three and jumping behind cover before the plasma flew. The 48-round magazine worked wonders in clearing large groups of enemies. Bright luminescent blue blood splattered onto the forest floor. Meanwhile, I heard a growl from an Elite.

I popped my head out of cover, reloading as I did so. There were now about three times as many Grunts and one rookie Elite in blue armor. Shit. This was going to require some thinking.

In this situation, one ODST against a dozen Covenant soldiers did not look promising. The base would be alerted anyway, so that meant I could go loud. I removed the MA5C from my back, a plan already formed in my head.

Jumping out of cover, I threw a Lotus anti-tank mine like a discus into the heart of the enemy formation, spraying thunderous suppressive fire. I ran into a little rock wall and took cover, throwing two fragmentation grenades for good measure while reaching for a fresh magazine.

The timing was perfect. I had taken down two Grunts with the assault rifle, and the three explosive devices exploded at the same time. Twin blasts of thunder coupled with one earsplitting roar reverberated through me, the shockwave shaking me to the core. I stepped out, assault rifle at the ready.

The Elite lay in a pool of purple blood, half his body blown away. Dead Grunts littered the floor, and a few struggled to rise, squawking in fear. I picked them off with a few bursts from my assault rifle.

Satisfied the area was clear, I slotted a fresh magazine into the assault rifle. Where the hell was that damn EMP pulse?

Just then, there was a large crackle of energy, and the Covie base's shields went out. Perfect. I sprinted straight to the nearest entrance, blasting the few Grunts guarding it into oblivion. I made it through just as the blast doors closed.

I slowly advanced, reloading and sending a transmission to the Ukulele.

10101010101

"_ Ukulele_, this is Corporal Martin. I've made it into the base, looks like that EMP pulse overloaded their electronics pretty bad. I'm heading to the command center, based on the schematics you supplied. Can you make contact, over?"

The Captain keyed the button for the comm. "Corporal, this is Captain Marshall, come in, over."

A moment of silence, then, "I read you, Captain. It sure feels good to hear something on the comm. again." Periodic bursts of gunfire could be heard in the background. "Do you have any idea what to do when I take this base, sir?"

"Hold that thought, Corporal. Keep moving forward. You do whatever you need to take that base. The only thing you need to worry about is that damned Covenant structure that took your whole squad down. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." The Captain's voice had been authoritative, but I thought I detected a small waver in his speech.

"Acknowledged, Corporal. Stay sharp, and don't get killed. Marshall out." The connection cut. The Captain's discomfort was still there. Perhaps this was too much for him to take...

I shook my head clear of the thought. It was time to clean house. Smiling, I stood in front of an inner door, MA5C at the ready.

* * *

**Author's note: SOOOOOO, whaddya think? Not enough action? Not enough talk? Rate, review, subscribe, I don't care. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: Hi all. Well, it's about time, isn't it. What has it been, like 9 months or some ridiculous number like that? Anyway, I'm so, so sorry that it has been such a long wait. And I know you've been reading. Many hundred hits, but no reviews? Really? Gah. Enough with the annoying Author's note. Enjoy the second chapter of One Big Hellhole. Cheers :)**

_Disclaimer: I do not own ODSTs, or any part of this kickass series called Halo made by Bungie. I own all of my OCs, however. We love you Bungie. _

* * *

There was no sound. Nothing. Just the sound of my own breathing in the helmet, and a little buzzing coming from the inside of my own head. Probably just my nerves. Huh, weird that it would come up now.

Slowly, I proceeded down the hallway. Keeping an eye on my motion tracker and my assault rifle leveled, I felt my heart rate increase. There was nothing in this hallway. What the fuck. It was too quiet.

I had no idea what the hell was wrong with this damn hallway, but it was making me jumpy as hell. Then, it occurred to me that I should have looked up.

The rifle went up, and my head followed. The VISR showed nothing for a few seconds, but then, outlines appeared.

Dozens and dozens of them. In red.

A sleeping nest of drones. Just my luck. It was a miracle that none of them had woken up yet. I guess I could walk quieter than I thought.

Thank God for the helmet, which eliminated all sound coming from me. My rapidly accelerating breathing/heart rate would have given me away for sure.

Wanting to get out of the damn thing as fast as I could, I walked, calmly towards the end, where the damn schematics were pointing me to go to. Lucky me, having shitty intel from ONI, losing my entire squad, then having these fucking schematics directing me through a drone nest to the objective. For the thousandth time during my military career, I cursed the spooks for not being able to do their jobs right.

The rifle stayed up, pointed straight at the buggers. Let's hope they can't see in the dark.

After a good amount of walking, the end of the hallway didn't seem any closer. The drones were still sleeping, oh so quietly. I could hear nothing besides my own breathing, which had calmed down a little. This was strange.

I walked. There were a couple of lumps on the metal floor of the hallway, but I paid them no attention. All I wanted was to get to the end of the fucking hallway where there weren't a zillion buggers who could pick me up and literally tear me apart. That was, until I kicked one of the lumps by accident.

Thud.

No movement. The damn thing was soft as hell. What was in the thing? I turned up the visual gain on my VISR, hoping to make sense out of the lump. I was just about to move on when I heard something.

Moan.

So quiet, a normal person wouldn't have picked it up. But I did.

Which meant -

I looked up.

Yep. An angry horde of buggers. Coming straight for me.

Well, that entrance certainly looks a lot closer than before. I guess I'd better HAUL ASS OVER THERE!

My boots thudded against the metal floor, ringing out with every step. The sense of being chased was not a good feeling. Not daring to look back, I kept running. After a few more steps, though, I had to sneak a peek. There weren't that many in front of me anyway.

Holy fucking shit! How many of those damn things are there?

Blasting down a couple who flew down to block my way - and simultaneously waking up anything that wasn't already up - I stormed towards the door. Goddamn those things fly loud. Kinda like grasshoppers in a way, you know? Oh for God's sake, Ken, focus!

Not two steps away from the door, the assault rifle clicked empty, and there were a few of the drones blocking my way. Definitely enough to just start dragging me away and eating me alive.

The VISR was glitching out. Too many moving things for it to track at once. Amid the jumbled mess of lines, I made out three shapes, and just beyond that, the characteristic purple glow of the Covenant bulkheads.

Without thinking, I smashed my fist against one of the shapes, feeling the drone squish slightly and give a little. The rifle butt came next, crushing the skull of the second shape before it could react. With the rest of the horde behind me, I dove for the door, which opened to bright light. The VISR automatically shut off, and the faceplate polarized to protect my eyes.

Kicking the empty rifle out the hallway and drawing my SMG, I opened up on the rest of the buggers, holding them back as the door waited to close. I chucked a plasma grenade from one of the Elites earlier at the swarming insects for good measure. The brilliant electric blue explosive burned brightly in my visor, and I hoped it would keep them in.

It did. Barely. The bugger where it was stuck to tried to fly out, but I clipped one of its wings with the SMG fire, causing it to wobble. The delay was enough for the explosive to detonate, and pushed back the rest of the horde as the doors closed.

With the blast disrupting the sensitive door electronics, the security failsafe read the door as a malfunction and remotely locked down the doors, sealing the horde within.

Quickly, I gathered up my assault rifle and looked for a secluded spot, an area where I couldn't be seen. With my HUD flashing madly in my face telling me to follow the route to the objective, I dove into a little hole, dark and away from the rest of the base. Hopefully no Covenant saw me run off like that.

I scrambled to load another magazine into the assault rifle. Damn ammunition and its damn reloads. Come on, come on. I keep an eye on the motion tracker just as I finish reloading the gun. I rack the charging handle frantically.

Gun goes up, no contacts.

I sit there for a while. Really? You're not going to throw hordes of Grunts at me? Not even after I essentially blew up one of your blast doors? Huh. I guess the Covenant are really out of it here.

_Duh-Duh. Duh-Duh._

I can suddenly hear my heart thudding against my chest. Wow. I was so amped up I didn't even notice. Best to lie low for a while. I keep the rifle up for a few minutes, terrified that there would be hordes of Covenant soldiers rushing me, burning me alive with plasma fire and subsequently tearing my flesh apart.

Ew. What made you think of that, Ken?

I sigh and lean back against the wall in the little hidey hole, assault rifle sagging next to me. Nothing's going to see me in here unless they actually come and look, while peering into the darkness intently. For all intents and purposes, I was invisible.

I quickly consult my HUD for the correct route through this base. Hopefully I can get to the control room or whatever it is quick enough that they can't send for reinforcements. I'm not gonna let my brothers down, even when I'm the only one left.

Then it dawns on me. Holy shit. I just lost an entire ODST squad. Men and women with whom I worked with, lived with, trained with. With whom I laughed and joked and slept around with. All gone, in a single drop.

Jesus. I take my head into my hands, thoughts now rearing uncontrollably through my head. Unable to stop them, I curl up into a ball, my HUD flashing the map route, and I close my eyes.

0101010010011

"Captain, the Corporal's vitals are speeding out of control. He might have been hit." Lieutenant Harper tapped furiously at her keyboard, keying commands and trying to keep the weak signal from the surface from fading. "You might want to raise him on radio."

Shit. The Captain shifted slightly from his seat and keyed the button for a radio broadcast. "Corporal, you alright down there, son?"

Static emerged from the radio.

"Dammit Corporal. You are not dying on me, over. You hear me? You are not falling to these damn Covies!"

This time, a small whimper.

Captain Marshall looked towards the Lieutenant. "Is he still alive?"

"One moment. Attempting to get a clean signal." There was the rapid clicking of keys. "There. He looks fine, just in shock. As far as I can tell, he's had no injuries. The suit's in perfect condition."

Captain Marshall shook his head. "It sounds like he's having a massive psychological problem. Probably realizing what losing a squad means, now that he's had time to think." He tried to raise the Marine again. "Come on Corporal. Lift your head up. Take revenge for what these sons-of-bitches did to your squad." The Captain stopped, sat back.

The eyes of the bridge crew were on him. This one soldier, all that was left of an entire military squad, was their key to this mission. With only a small compliment of Marines on board, the _Ukulele_ had no more soldiers to spare. They were dependent of this one man, and said man was falling to pieces after witnessing the loss of his entire team. There was nothing the bridge crew could do.

A sniffle. A cough.

"Will do, Captain." The Corporal's voice rang throughout the bridge. There was a silent sigh of relief. "Corporal Martin out."

10010100111001

Out in space, there was nothing. Or so it seemed.

Pieces of debris floated through the remnants of a space station in orbit over the planet, slowly drifting through space lazily. Nothing seemed amiss, and the pieces moved towards the _Ukulele_. Unbeknownst to the crew, a single piece of debris shaped like a small cube untangled itself from the mass of moving metal, using tiny chemical thrusters to propel itself to the hull of the ship. As it reached the hull, tiny claws extended from the cube and extended into the hull of the ship, effortlessly cutting into the reinforced metal. Solidly secured, it began to tap into the ship's wiring, and became an electronic presence within the ship, so discreet that even an AI would have to know what it was looking for to even have a chance of finding it. Silently, it began to monitor incoming comms, computing the information and waiting for the right time. Then, it would encode the information into a small data crystal, and would shoot it off into slipspace, where a Covenant ship would be waiting to receive it. Humanity will have all its secrets revealed.

1010101001

Gah. I shake off the remains of the nervous breakdown. Strangely, I don't feel as bad as I feel I should. Maybe it's because I have my bearings again. Ugh. Mental shit is never fun. I thought I understood that.

I grip my SMG, now that I find myself in closer quarters. I've peeled myself from the hidey-hole I've made, and ventured deeper into the base, avoiding a nasty Elite Ultra patrol. Somehow, I've managed to find a hallway that was almost as dark as before, although I can see a lot better. It's a wonder how much difference just a little light can make to the VISR. The map's telling me to go through a small hallway before emerging into a large corridor that's bound to have lots of Covies waiting for me. I sigh as I walk forward, wondering why I always had the hard jobs. But hey, that's being an ODST for you.

As I open the door to the small hallway, I am immediately overwhelmed by the bright lights shining overhead. I hurry inside, clawing at the switch to turn off my VISR as I do so. I hear the door slide shut behind me, and I wait a bit to allow my eyes to adjust.

Is that... Heavy breathing?

As my vision finally clears, I see the worst thing that you could possibly have in close quarters.

Oh shit.

* * *

**Dunn Dunn Dunn!**

**I hate using cliffhangers, but this seemed an appropriate place to stop. I've got the next chapter already planned out in my head, and since it's summer (YAY) I'm going to have a good amount of time to play with this story. I've really wanted to finish this since I started it (ironic, no?) so I'm going to set my sights on putting a lot of chapters up before the summer ends. **

**Anyway, what do you think? Are the characters too shallow, the action too boring, something like that? Please, please, PLEEEEAAAASSSEEEEE give me at least a PM or something. Really, I was shocked at the amount of people reading but no one seemed to review. Review plz :)**

**On that note, cheers to not such a long wait for the next chapter!**


	3. DISCONTINUED

Dear Readers:

I am truly sorry to inform you that this story will be discontinued. What started out as an awesome idea turned into more and more improbable situations, and it simply isn't working for me right now. I don't have the time to brainstorm and flesh out some of the story ideas that I want to. To be honest, the story wasn't going anywhere anyway, and it would have been pointless to continue. Once again, I apologize, and hope that your opinion of me has not changed because of this neatly disguised excuse for not doing any more work on this story.

Please, fellow readers, do continue reading, and if you have a project of your own, keep typing away until it satisfies you!

Thanks for understanding.

Regards,

-daarb123


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